


A Passing Madness

by moreless



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Armitage Hux is So Done, Canon-Typical Violence, Chancellor Hux, Classic Kylux, Duel of the Fates (Trevorrow Script), Kylux Positivity Week 2020, Lightsabers, M/M, Mind Games, Power Dynamics, Power Play, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:20:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24965860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moreless/pseuds/moreless
Summary: “It’s a gift,” says Ren simply, folding his large hands behind his back. His gaze moves between the lightsaber and Hux. “It used to belong to the Jedi traitor Mace Windu. It reminded me of you.”Two steps forward, one step back. Another step back. That's how their relationship works. Even now.Written for Kylux Positivity Week Day 1: Chancellor/Supreme LeaderandPower Dynamics.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren
Comments: 8
Kudos: 71
Collections: Kylux Positivity Week 2.0





	A Passing Madness

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Временное помешательство](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25322581) by [fandom SW IX - Duel of the Fates 2020 (Our_Own_Star_Wars)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Our_Own_Star_Wars/pseuds/fandom%20SW%20IX%20-%20Duel%20of%20the%20Fates%202020), [Lenuchka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lenuchka/pseuds/Lenuchka)



When Ren says “Take this,” the last thing Hux expects to be handed is a lightsaber. It’s deceptively heavy for a weapon less than a foot long and a little over an inch wide. The electrum finishings gleam in the warm light of his Chancellor's office—a surprisingly indulgent touch considering it used to be the property of a Jedi.

He rolls it in his palm, tests its balance on the tips of his fingers. All the while Ren watches him with his dark, intense eyes, and Hux feels a shiver crawl up the back of his neck. Is this the rope Ren wishes he hang himself with? It would suit Ren’s dark humour to gift him the tool of his own execution.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” he asks. His thumb plays about the ignition plate. He does not know if igniting the lightsaber will be seen as a threat.

“It’s a gift,” says Ren simply, folding his large hands behind his back. His gaze moves between the lightsaber and Hux. “It used to belong to the Jedi traitor Mace Windu. It reminded me of you.”

“Mace Windu attempted to assassinate the Supreme Chancellor Palpatine,” Hux says bluntly. “It was that cowardly attempt by the Jedi to remove him from power which led to dissolution of the Old Republic and the rise of the Empire.”

“You know your history well.”

“What do you want, R—Supreme Leader?” Hux asks, cutting to the chase. He doesn’t have time for these games nor does he have the desire to entertain them. If Ren wants to kill him he should do it now and quickly. Hux refuses to give into whatever childish whim that may have arisen in him now. If Ren wishes him to suffer an ignoble death—struck down while trying to fight him with the lightsaber of a dead traitor—Hux is going to have to disappoint.

“Why are you in such a rush?” counters Ren, and settles back into one of the high backed armchairs that dot the waiting room of Hux’s offices. “I have two hours of your time, I even made an appointment with your secretary.”

Hux presses his lips together to keep his face from twisting into a scowl. He’d briefly considered moving a meeting with the senator of Malastare, but abstained in the end. Didn’t want to give Ren the satisfaction of dragging him bodily from the room, or throwing a tantrum in front of Senator Inyusu.

“Fine,” he says, dropping into the seat across from Ren. The lightsaber dangles carelessly from his hand; Ren might see right through his affected insouciance but Hux cannot bring himself to care. 

Ren steeples his hands before himself. He does this a lot lately, sort of posing as he sits, the way he probably thinks a wise leader would sit. It’s very try-hard, like everything he ever does is. “You’re thinking very hard, Chancellor.”

“Stay out of my head, Ren.” The words are rote, betrayed as such by the fact that he forgets to address Ren by his title. At this point he’s given up trying to completely keep him out of his head, though he suspects by now that Ren has never managed to glean much from his thoughts anyway. 

Ren sighs. “Very well.” He looks a little put-upon, like he’s disappointed Hux isn’t rising to bait. Well, if he wanted Hux to argue him at every turn, he should’ve kept him on the _Finalizer_ instead of putting him in charge of the First Order Capitol and their entire system of planets. At this point Hux has enough on his plate with matters of governance and navigating the endlessly petty politics of the various systems in their rule. He doesn’t have time to indulge Ren’s various flights of fancy.

“You’ve been looking into the Jedi Temple databases.”

Hux schools his face into a neutral expression, though he knows it won't fool Ren. Being discovered was always a possibility. Ren might even kill him for it. But the gift of the lightsaber muddles it. His hands tighten around the hilt, the ridged grip biting into his palm.

“Yes,” he admits. “I found that I had access, and I believed it might be of use to us to defeat that scavenger girl you have so much trouble with.”

A weight settles on the base of his throat before the last word even leaves his mouth, though Ren’s hands remain steepled at his chest. His brow creases in annoyance and he leans forward. “You’re lying. What use does the research of Jenna Zan Arbor have to us?”

“She was investigating the secrets of the Force,” Hux explains. “Hoping to replicate Force sensitivity in Force-nulls.”

“How will this help us?”

“Use your imagination, Ren,” Hux snaps, despite the growing tightness in his chest. “Imagine an army of Force sensitives, not just you and your pack of dogs roaming the galaxy. Actual _trained_ forces—”

“The affairs of the First Order military are no longer your concern—”

“ _Everything_ is my concern now. Systems are rebelling, in hatred of us or in fear of local civil wars instigated by the Resistance. The girl keeps escaping you—”

“Are you questioning my methods?”

“What methods?” Hux scoffs. Sucks a desperate breath between his teeth. “You’re like an akk hound chasing its tail. The Force is wasted on you—”

“But it wouldn’t be on you,” Ren hisses. He’s moving before Hux can react, unfolding his rudely large body with alarming speed as he leans all the way into Hux’s space, hands braced against the back of Hux's chair. Hux is trapped like this, pinned like an unfortunate species of butterfly by Ren’s black stare. His heart pounds in his chest hard enough to drive the breath from his lungs.

“You think it wouldn’t be wasted on you, don’t you?”

Ren lifts his hand and presses it into the crook of Hux’s elbow, of his non-dominant hand, Ren’s thumb unerringly finding the spot where he’s been dosing himself. If Hux doesn’t flinch it's because his whole body has seized up—his spine aches from its rigidity and he finds his eyes watering slightly as he unblinkingly meets Ren’s gaze. Ren thumb digs into the joint, large hand curling around his elbow until his fingers press into the sensitive nerve at the back of it, sending tingles shivering down his arm. His fingertips feel numb. The fingers on his dominant hand clench in sympathy—and with a _snap-hiss_ the brilliant amethyst light of Mace Windu’s lightsaber fills half the room.

“Do it.” The light is brighter than Hux anticipated—it throws half of Ren’s face into craggy relief, casting the rest in shadow. “Do it.” His hot breath washes over Hux’s throat.

Hux laughs. It burst from his mouth unbidden, and like a dam in his chest has broken, he can breathe again. Ren falls back, brows now drawn together in puzzlement as Hux howls like a madman, tears pricking his eyes. Hux blinks and lets them fall. Everything has gotten so far out of his control, his body might as well join in. He gives in to the abandon until his sides ache, tears dripping off his chin, until he’s slouched in his seat like a drunkard. The whole while, Ren sits back on his haunches, watching him. The bastard actually looks concerned, like he’s worried for Hux’s sanity.

He’s a bit too late for that.

“Oh fuck,” Hux finally manages to groan, pulling himself upright and almost slicing through his own seat with the lightsaber. It’s still ignited. He’s lucky he didn’t cut himself in half laughing his head off. How’s that for an ignoble death.

“So…” he rises to his feet, stepping over Ren’s knees and walking to the window. “How do you want to do it? Will you plead for your life at my feet? Until you overpower me and kill me?” No security holo of the assassination attempt on Palpatine exists, except for a static-filled audio-only recording which was submitted as evidence. A pointless formality; Palpatine already had the whole senate in his pocket by then, and Hux suspects it was heavily edited. “Though I suppose you should be playing the role of your grandfather.”

Ren climbs slowly to his feet. “What is wrong with you?” 

“You’re one to ask,” says Hux. “I’m not here to play re-enactments of Vader’s fall to the dark so that you have an excuse to kill me. And _yes_ , I have been drawing on Jenna Zan Arbor’s scientific study of the Jedi and their connection to the Force. I have been testing the results of these experiments on myself. We’re trying to isolate certain components in their blood—there are Jedi records that mention midichlorians, though we have yet to determine if they're a particularly elaborate metaphor or an actual symbiotic life-form. Either way, there are no traces of tiny creatures in any of the blood samples we have collected. But we—”

“It’s not going to work,” says Ren. 

“That’s what they said about Starkiller Base.”

“The Force isn’t like any of your technological monstrosities. It works—”

“So help me, if you says it works in mysterious ways, I will stab myself with this lightsaber. Or is that what you wished of me in the first place?”

Ren looks from the saber to Hux. He shrugs. “It reminded me of you. You had to get all dramatic about it.”

“What—”Hux begins, then stops himself. Takes a deep breath through his nose, pinching its bridge to stave off the headache that’s beginning to make itself known. The lightsaber blade retracts with a hiss when he moves his thumb off the ignition plate, and the room returns to its warm glow from the overhead lights. “Never mind. Is there anything else I can assist you with, Supreme Leader?”

“Are you dismissing me?” Ren growls. 

So this is it then, Hux thinks resignedly. Back where they started. He has gained nothing from this meeting, except a useless token with no meaning behind it, and the awareness that Ren now knows how deeply he’s cracked. “No, of course not,” he mutters. 

“I’ll forget this episode of yours,” Ren says, wagging his finger as though he’s scolding a recalcitrant child. “If you wish to keep poisoning yourself, go ahead. Even if you do by chance succeed in touching the Force, you will never have the power to defeat me.”

“The Force works—”

Ren’s hand shuts him up, gloved fingers digging into the soft underside of his jaw, his cheeks. “Careful, Hux,” he growls. “This passing madness of yours will only let you get away with so much. And I don’t need any excuse to kill you.” Under his hand, Hux’s jaw clenches, his teeth grind together so hard he won’t be surprised if Ren could hear it. He nods. 

“Good,” says Ren. His grip relents, though his hand returns to chuck Hux gently—almost fondly!—under the chin, before he’s gone in a swish of his overdramatic long robes. The door hisses shut behind him with a ringing finality.

After what feels like an age, Hux finally unlocks his knees, stumbling over to one of the large floor-to-ceiling windows. Coruscant traffic snakes below him, an endless ribbon of vehicles all ferrying beings blissfully unaware that their lives are held in the hands of two madmen.

Hux strokes his chin, tracing the skin where Ren had touched him. He has sacrificed much ground in these two hours, but he thinks he knows now too how deep Ren’s faultlines go.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the scene in the Trevorrow script where Hux tries to use the Force on some coins, and Kylo sneaks up behind him and is completely unfazed by that. Which implies he's gotten familiar with Chancellor Hux's Force-obsession.
> 
> Jenna Zan Arbor is a character from Legends who did run experiments on Jedi to replicate their Force sensitivity.


End file.
